The original establishment of AGERI in 1989, was the result of a commitment of expertise in agricultural biotechnology. At the time of its genesis, AGERI was named the National Agricultural Genetic Engineering Laboratory (NAGEL), a project funded by the UNDP.

Rapid progress made during the first three years encouraged the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation (MOALR) to authorize the foundation of AGERI, which is phase two of the national goal for excellence in genetic engineering and biotechnology.

AGERI is a discipline oriented institute within the Agricultural Research Center (ARC) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation. AGERI is located within the ARC site in Giza which facilitates an interface with other ARC institutes and provides a focal point for biology and genetic engineering for crop applications in Egypt.

The premises contain a total net area of 1800 m² consisting of 12 well-equipped laboratories, a BioComputing & Networks Unit, a central facility, a preparation/washing facility and a supply and chemicals repository.

In addition, the controlled environment chambers (140m²) and a conventional multispan fiberglass greenhouse (307m²) are used to host the transgenic plant material for acclimatization.

A new containment facility, based upon a University of Arizona design and complying with the biosafety and EPA (Environment Protection Agency) regulations has been constructed, adding 412m² of state-of-the-art space which will allow the safe handling of materials in experiments dealing with the degree of gene expression in transgenic plants.

An open field experimental station (1.5 acres of land) for field testing of genetically engineered plant material has also been added to AGERI’s property.